Judges Israel

An eminent Israeli jurist Thursday dealt a sharp setback to his government's hopes to quiet U.S. and domestic criticism of its role in the Jonathan Jay Pollard spy affair when he refused to serve on a special investigating committee. Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Moshe Landau, 74, turned down the committee chairmanship because the two-man panel's powers are too restricted, he said.

An Israeli Arab writer has been convicted of fomenting violence in a collection of poems that praised the Palestinian uprising in the occupied territories. Shafik Habib, 51, an accountant by profession, was fined $3,100 and given three years' probation by a judge Sunday. Lawyer Yaron Kedar said it was the first time a poet in Israel had been convicted of a crime for his works.

An Israeli Arab writer has been convicted of fomenting violence in a collection of poems that praised the Palestinian uprising in the occupied territories. Shafik Habib, 51, an accountant by profession, was fined $3,100 and given three years' probation by a judge Sunday. Lawyer Yaron Kedar said it was the first time a poet in Israel had been convicted of a crime for his works.

An eminent Israeli jurist Thursday dealt a sharp setback to his government's hopes to quiet U.S. and domestic criticism of its role in the Jonathan Jay Pollard spy affair when he refused to serve on a special investigating committee. Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Moshe Landau, 74, turned down the committee chairmanship because the two-man panel's powers are too restricted, he said.

Gideon Hausner, who prosecuted Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann as Israeli attorney general, has died. He was 75. He had been hospitalized for the past three months in Jerusalem, where he died Thursday. His family declined to give the cause of death. Hausner became a world figure during the 1961-62 trial, which ended with Eichmann's conviction and hanging for his role in murdering millions of Jews. "When I stand here before you, judges of Israel . . .

One of the strongest arguments against international piano competitions as a main path to recognition is that the wrong pianists sometimes win, and the more virtuous go unrewarded. That perspective is defensible. On the other hand, however, sometimes the best musicians triumph against lesser talents. Sometimes the judges make the right decision.

Few animals can match the donkey for its biblical reputation. In the Old Testament, a talking ass saved the prophet Balaam from doom as they plodded down a road toward the angel of the Lord. Balaam couldn't see the angel, but the donkey could. The animal's power of spiritual perception, coupled with its newfound voice, spared rider and mount from being struck down by the angel's flaming sword.